New chapter for Da Vinci Code sales
The London court case over The Da Vinci Code is being hailed as one reason for the resurgence in popularity of Dan Brown’s novel.
More than 500,000 copies of Brown’s historical thriller sold in its first week of paperback release in the US and an initial printing of five million has been upped to six million, publisher Anchor Books said.
Russell Perreault, vice-president and director of publicity for Anchor and Vintage Books, paperback imprints of Random House, said the weekly sales were the highest in memory for a paperback.
Anchor/Vintage has issued Bill Clinton’s My Life and numerous Oprah Winfrey picks, including James Frey’s A Million Little Pieces and Rohinton Mistry’s A Fine Balance.
Brown’s book has already sold more than 40 million copies worldwide in hardcover and continues to sell well three years after publication, helped in part by an endless series of controversies, most recently a copyright lawsuit in London.
A decision is expected tomorrow on the claim by Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh that Brown’s book “appropriated the architecture” of their 1982 non-fiction work, The Holy Blood And The Holy Grail, a bestseller thanks in large part to the Da Vinci boom.
The Da Vinci paperback came out on March 28, not because interest in the hardcover had slowed down, but in anticipation of the May 19 film version, starring Tom Hanks.
“We expect Da Vinci sales to continue to grow through the release of the movie next month,” Borders spokeswoman Beth Bingham said.
“In addition, the Da Vinci-like titles are doing very well. Books like Secret Supper, The Last Templar, The Templar Legacy and Labyrinth are all very popular right now.”
